Names of minority voters not deleted, says Karnataka CM

Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday denied reports that names of voters from minority communities were being deleted from voter list even as the opposition Congress launched a campaign urging voters to verify it.

Bommai told the media at Hubballi airport that the Election Commission had been seized of the recent instance of unauthorised gathering of voter data in Bengaluru and was supervising the revision of voter lists in Bengaluru.

Both the Election Commission of India and State Election Commission had already taken appropriate steps and would investigate complaints, if any, regarding deletion of names from voter lists, he said.


The CM also flagged concerns about names of many voters being found on voter lists in more than one place. The commission will have to deal with such duplications and delete names while ensuring that names of genuine voters stay on voter lists.

The Congress, meanwhile, launched a digital campaign to "create awareness" among voters to verify the voter lists had their names.

The party announced that it will reach about a million voters in Bengaluru via WhatsApp, urging them to verify their names as the party accused the ruling BJP of aiding the "voter data theft in Bengaluru".

"How can you know if the @BJP4Karnataka has erased your name from the voter rolls? Are you one of the 6.6 lakh voters targeted? Check if your name is included by visiting: https://electoralsearch.in," the Congress said in a post on Twitter.

The party said the Election Commission was shaken by the voter ID data theft that occurred in Bengaluru "under the nose of the BJP government" and ordered a thorough probe.